Stephen O'Neill keeping his fingers crossed for a historic Tyrone treble
Former Tyrone footballer Stephen O'Neill. AIB will bring an added layer of excitement as the season nears an end with the return of the Volunteer VIP competition for the third time. For updates on the matches, Volunteer VIP competition details, exclusive content and behind the scenes action from the GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, follow AIB GAA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
By Paul Keane
Two down, one to go. These are exciting times to be a Tyrone football supporter. They've already captured the Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor football title, as well as the Dalata Hotel Group U-20 trophy.
The county's seniors are still in the Sam Maguire Cup race and if they can win that title too, it will be the first time since 1975 that a county has won all three in the same season.
That county? Kerry, of course, who Tyrone will play in the first of this weekend's senior semi-finals tomorrow.
"It would be an amazing achievement," said AIB GAA ambassador Stephen O'Neill of a potential clean sweep. "I'm sure it's something that the senior team have probably seen the minor and U-20 successes and they'll be delighted with that and will be hoping to get over the line as well.
"It's such a massive thing for the county. Though I'm sure Malachy O'Rourke will be keeping their minds off that. It'll be the 'one game at a time' mentality. Kerry on Saturday is such a big challenge. You're obviously going to be marking three or four of the top forwards in the county. It will take so much to get over them.
"But as a supporter, as a county, to win the three, the clean sweep, it would be a very special achievement."
Tyrone are underdogs this weekend, partly on the basis that Kerry opened up with arguably the most impressive period of play of the entire season when they dismantled All-Ireland holders Armagh with a succession of scores in the second-half of their quarter-final tie.
Former Footballer of the Year O'Neill, a three-time All-Ireland winner in the 2000s, agreed that it was impressive from Kerry but he also pointed to Armagh's failings.
"I think they (Kerry) are going to have to bring the same sort of intensity because Tyrone's going to bring that," said O'Neill. "I think Armagh in the second-half, it was a wee bit like the Monaghan game against Donegal. For whatever reason, they didn't seem to get going in that second-half.
"I don't think Tyrone will lie down like that. I think Tyrone will give them their fill of it for the 70 minutes. The first-half, I can see it being very cagey, very tight. I think the longer it stays like that, the better it is for Tyrone. I think Tyrone have a really strong bench and Eoin McElholm and Ruairi Canavan can step in and get scores. It leads me to believe that Tyrone can hopefully get the result."
Darragh Canavan celebrates a score for Tyrone. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
O'Neill reckons that the two-pointers could be flying over at both ends too.
"Tyrone are blessed to have people like Peter Harte, Mattie Donnelly, boys who have experience and have the skillset that can produce those types of shots," said O'Neill.
"The one thing I always said about Kerry as well, whenever we played them, and even now, their defenders, every one of them is very, very comfortable kicking the ball. So Tyrone will definitely get pressed out on them as quickly as possible and not let people, especially Sean O'Shea and (David) Clifford get shots from far out."
O'Neill himself has just finished up as a coach with Cavan, following previous stints with his native Tyrone and Antrim. He was part of Raymond Galligan's backroom in Cavan until the Breffni boss stepped down earlier this week.
"I really enjoyed my time with Cavan, a really good bunch of lads to work with," said O'Neill. "It's a good bunch of players there with a really good attitude. There's lots of young players that Raymond bled in over this last year or two.
"The county has been left in a good position and it'll be a good job for anybody coming in because there's a good batch of older players and then obviously younger players like Evan Crowe, Barry Donnelly, Darragh Lovett will hopefully help get Cavan further up the ladder."
O'Neill was involved with Cavan last month when they came up against Kerry and winced as the Kingdom's iconic attacker David Clifford helped himself to 3-7. Clifford is Tyrone's headache now.
"There's not much a defender can do with a player like David Clifford," said O'Neill. "He's fast, he's big, he's strong. He's got all the skills and all the abilities and he can do magical things. It's one of those games where the 15 men out the field are going to have to really work hard and help.
"It'll probably be Paudie Hampsey picking him up or somebody like that. So they'll have to help Paudie as best they can. Tyrone are blessed to have Paudie because I think he's the best man-marker there is in the business.
"It'll be a good battle and whoever picks up Sean O'Shea too, that's going to be another interesting one-on-one battle. But it's a team effort to try to nullify somebody like David Clifford."
